"What links the objects is Mr. Bonetti’s use of scale — pieces are monumental and demand your attention. They are also made of high-end materials: bronze, cast aluminum, gold and silver plate, and so forth. He is collected by people like Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, who contributed an essay to a new book about Mr. Bonetti, out this month from Rizzoli. Seeing his work in the showroom of Christian Lacroix in Paris, the princess writes, “I just had to have it for the drawing room of our castle in Regensburg.”

It wasn't quite this sculpture, but I remember being in my early 20's, and stumbling into Saatchi's Neurotic Realism Pt 1 in London in 1999. Steven Gontarski's sculptures standing erect, mutating with socks and stitched fabrics. Monumental in every way....

Steven Gontarski: I'm not particularly interested in the monumental or in grandeur for it's own sake but I'm drawn to the monument as a sculptural form because it's meant to help us remember things/people and prompt reflection. Its association with death gives it dual reverbations; one of grim reality and one of spiritual timelessness or perhaps even a transition into a different space.

David John is co-founder of DISC Interiors in Los Angeles. This is his personal journal, a collection of conversations with friends, makers, and artists, as well as his photographs. You Have Been Here Sometime. Feel free to contact:david ( at ) discinteriors.com